Migration Makes Us Safer, Richer, Resilient and Secure

The mandate of the OSCE’s office responsible for co-ordinating economic and environmental activities is framed around a positive concept of migration as a resource, a key driver of economic development, growth and prosperity.

Migration is hotly debated in these times of increasing unregulated flows of persons across the world, including in and around the OSCE region. Media headlines are dominated by alarmist reports of threats to our security and lifestyle; populist politicians leverage anxieties about growing unemployment and economic inequality to fuel negative attitudes towards refugees and foreign workers. In such an atmosphere it is difficult to speak about migration as a resource. Yet, in line with its mandate, this is exactly how the Office of the Coordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities (OSCE/OCEEA) sees migration, and with good reason.

Towards more legal migration

Migration patterns have changed in the last twenty-five years – shaped, accelerated and magnified by globalization. While the circulation of people has been made easier by the low cost of transportation and the fall of former political and ideological barriers, states have taken a progressively more rigid approach to human mobility. In our increasingly inter-connected economies, this is a paradox. The mobility of skills and capacities is an integral part of a business world that strives for ever greater efficiency and productivity. A five-year study on the determinants of migration by the International Migration Institute has confirmed that restrictive labour migration policies worsen the problems they are intended to prevent, triggering, for instance, a deflection into irregularity. Contrary to conventional wisdom, greater human mobility is part of the solution. In a world where one out of seven people lives and works outside her/his home country, developing effective legal channels of migration has a positive transformative effect on the lives of individuals and national economies alike.

More legal migration makes our societies more secure. It reduces exploitation and counteracts the social exclusion of regular and irregular migrant workers that can lead to social unrest. The International Labour Organization estimates that 20 million people are victims of forced labour worldwide. This is unacceptable from a human rights point of view and carries a social and economic cost the global economy cannot afford. Allowing more legal migration increases our social protection. It preserves our welfare systems, thanks to the injection of young and motivated talent into our aging societies. The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs predicts that by 2050 the share of people aged 60 year or older in the global population will, for the first time in history, match that of people younger than 15.

According to the Munich-based Institute for Economic Research, Germanyalone in theory would need an additional 32 million persons by 2035 to fund its current pension system. More legal migration makes us richer, because we can benefit from the investment of migrant workers’ savings in countries of origin and destination. The World Bank, in its Migration and Development Brief published in April, states that migrant workers send home 583 billion dollars in remittances annually, three times the amount of governmental overseas development assistance. This illustrates their sizable contribution to global prosperity.

Finally, more legal migration makes us more resilient. In today’s world, migration is no longer a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It is a coping strategy in the face of growing uncertainties deriving from an increasingly flexible global labour market, a tile in an ever-changing mosaic of work and life options. Open migration doors tend to be revolving doors that increase circularity, from migration to return,

to re-emigration.

Rethinking policies

The migrant crisis we are currently experiencing offers an opportunity to re-think existing migration tools and policies. We would be mistaken to consider one category of migrants, the refugees who flee war or persecution, as “good” and another, the economic migrants who seek a way to secure their livelihood abroad, as “bad”. Migration is a diversified phenomenon and the tools for managing it must be adapted to the different motives that push people to move. Some of the most powerful drivers of migration are people’s aspirations, dreams, creativity, spirit of challenge and sacrifice – the same forces that drive economic innovation and growth. It is important to recognize that among those who currently claim international protection, there are many in search for an opportunity to demonstrate their value to society. Establishing accessible and realistic labour migration channels should be a priority, so that receiving economies can benefit from this resource.

What can the OSCE do?

There is a strong need for good migration governance with a vision to expand legal channels of migration. This can only be a collective effort. The OSCE/OCEEA, in line with its mandate, offers participating States the opportunity to benefit from its long-standing experience and expertise, always aware that it is the prerogative of the state to determine who enters and stays in its territory and under what conditions. The Office builds its policy advice on three pillars: knowledge, capacities and co-operation. Knowledge: To have a positive impact, labour migration policies need to be grounded in economic evidence and analysis. The OSCE/OCEEA produces policy guides, handbooks and training material on improving migration legislation and policies. It has pioneered innovative methods to address aspirations and vulnerabilities of men and women migrant workers, as well as effective systems to collect and exchange migration data and statistics. It also uses occasions such as the meetings of the Economic and Environmental Committee, the annual Economic and Environmental Forum, expert meetings and seminars to brief participating States on critical research and practices.

Capacities: Migration challenges require pragmatic responses at national and local levels. To turn theoretical knowledge into operational practice, the OSCE/OCEEA provides training to relevant ministries, local authorities, representatives of trade unions and the private sector and migrant communities. By involving all of these stakeholders, it fosters an exchange of ideas that leads to the development and implementation of pilot initiatives, such as the Migrants’ Resource Centres established in Tajikistan in co-operation with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which provide predeparture and post-return orientation.

Co-operation: The ever-changing nature of migration flows imposes a continuous search for common ground and shared solutions among different players: countries of origin and destination, the private sector, local authorities, trade unions, hosting and migrant communities. Effective labour migration governance systems need to balance different concerns related to border control, demographic shifts, needs of national economies, skill-specific demands of labour markets and private businesses. The OSCE/OCEEA facilitates the exchange of information and the understanding of key tools to assess, monitor, adapt and implement effective labour migration policies. Its aim is to support political decisions that are based on economic evidence rather than on emotional or, even worse, demagogical approaches.

Making migration an asset for the economic development and growth of sending and receiving economies is a political responsibility, and it is a shared responsibility. It takes co-operation and a change in mind-set to turn challenges into opportunities. We need to understand that restrictive migration policies are part of the problem and not the solution. Together, we need to embrace migration as a structural feature of the global economy. And together, we need to pursue policies that make migration a tool for shared prosperity. If we work hand in hand, we can make migration a resource for all.

Teresa Albano is an Economic Affairs Officer in the Office of the Co-ordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities.

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